Oct. 10, 2011
SAN DIEGO -
San Diego State Head Coach Steve Fisher
Opening Statement:
"We are back at it and everybody is excited in our little world of men's basketball. Official practice begins Friday and it won't be too long before games will be here. We've sold more tickets than any other time in the history of San Diego State and that's the byproduct of (last year's record of) 34-3. And yet, we have six guys that are not with this team that were part of 34-3. So when people have asked me, `How are you going to be?' my stock answer has and will continue to be, `I'm a little nervous, yet very excited.'
"We'll have nine players that will suit up and be able to play, (and) two that are sitting out that we wish could play. We'll play hard and we'll have to have people step up and assume bigger roles and do more than maybe they've been asked in the past, which is also exciting, too.
"Chase Tapley and James Rahon are starters, even though Rahon didn't start a lot for us. (We) saw glimpses of Jamaal Franklin, so I'm anxious to see how all the pieces will fit. It's unlike a year ago when I came in here and said, `I know we're going to be good. How good? I'm not sure, but I know we're going to be good.' This year I'm very anxious to see how we will respond, who will step up and what we will be on Nov. 2, our first exhibition game, and Nov. 11, our first game for real.
"It's a fun time to be an Aztec and it's a fun time to be part of San Diego State athletics and in particular for us, San Diego State men's basketball. We are looking forward to a fun season and we will continue to need "The Show" and the crowd to be as big a part or maybe even more so than what they've been in the past to help this team be successful."
On his view of the Mountain West this season:
"I only know our team, I don't know all these other teams, the intricacies and the ins and outs. But most people will think New Mexico, UNLV or UNLV, New Mexico and we would probably be coming in third if you were to say, who do I think you folks would pick. That is probably what will happen, but who knows."
On whether to expect this year's team to have a faster tempo:
"Since I've been here, we've always tried to run. What you have to be able to do in order to run is stop the other team from scoring, which we did a great job of a year ago, which means closure by rebounding. If we're smaller, we're going to say will we be able to rebound the ball to run. We've always tried to get shots out of the flow out of transition. We would like to be able to run to score as much as we possibly could and not have to grind it out in a half-court set, even if our field this year might be more guard-oriented than inside-oriented. We would like to do it out of transition as much as possible. And yet against good teams in our league, it doesn't matter how good a running team you are, most teams are able to take away heavy duty scoring off the breaks. We're going to have be able to score in the half-court some too, but we will probably be more guard-oriented than you've seen in the past few years, based on who we have returning."
On his thoughts of the non-conference schedule:
"It's very challenging. I've said this before, it's the hardest we've played since I've been here when you look at all the teams. Everybody points out, I'm guilty of that also, you talk about playing at Baylor which is a top-10 team out of the gate. Then we play at Arizona, who could be a top-5 team. We have Cal and USC from the Pac-12 coming in, both very good programs. Then you look at Long Beach State and they will be picked to win the Big West. They have everyone returning from a team that we had a very difficult time with last year. We go to UC Santa Barbara, which we always have great games with. We have Creighton coming in here and they are probably the favorite to win the Missouri Valley. It's a good schedule, it's a very good schedule. We need to make sure that we're ready to go and I'm glad we start our first regular season games at home. That should be helpful for us, allow us to get our sea legs with new players and find ways to be successful."
On whether playing most of the non-conference games close to home will help the new team:
"We go on the road to Baylor after the first three (at home). Even though it's not out of California, we go up to Santa Barbara. We go to Arizona. I think we have everything that we would need to have ourselves prepared and ready to go. The most important thing to anything else is developing a confidence that you're good. Winning helps that. If we can win, that's the key. It doesn't matter where you play, whether you're playing here or whether you're playing some place else, we have to find ways to have some success. I believe that will allow us to grow in our confidence and then help with the success later on."